


Shared Nightmares

by FaithlessBex



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, minor season 11 spoilers, terrified archangels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 10:08:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4956223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithlessBex/pseuds/FaithlessBex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or: The Thing the Archangels Thought Would Never Happen But That They Really Should Have Known Better</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shared Nightmares

Gabriel is the first to sense it. He had never quite stopped keeping an eye on the various ways the world could end ( _not since Castiel had opened Purgatory and killed Raphael, that was too close of a call when he was still recuperating from being stabbed protecting the two vessels from his once-favorite big brother_ ) so he feels it like a tremor in his vessel's bones when the seal beaks on the cage that held the Darkness at bay. An uneasy look crosses the archangel's face as he spreads sapphire and gold wings wide, calling out to the furthest reaches he can manage, calling out to the siblings whom he had chosen to stand separate from all those centuries earlier.

It had taken all of them before, it would take all of them now.

* * *

Raphael - just recently returned to full power and grace - feels it just before she hears her younger brother's call. She's frozen in the middle of the sidewalk, her expression nothing but a facade hiding the sheer terror that had engulfed her. There is no sign of the newly released evil in the town she had come to consider a close replacement for home but that meant nothing. Humans. She sighs, staring up at the sky as if Heaven would reveal itself to her, as if her Father would reappear and tell her what to do. But she gave up on Him a long time ago and Gabriel was calling for her. For Michael and for Lucifer. If they are to defeat it, they would need a Healer. She sends her own cry, answering Gabriel's/

Emerald wings - unseen to the humans around her - carry Raphael away from the town and toward her once wayward brother.

* * *

Lucifer feels it before Michael does. He's burning, suddenly, feels the old Mark searing as if it still branded him with its evil. A loud, terrified shout leaves him and doesn't stop, banging his rose wings against the edges of the Cage in hopes that someone, anyone, could hear his warning and release him and Michael from where they could do nothing but wait for revenge to be brought against them. He hears his brother's gasp as the shockwave reverberates through the layers of reality separating the Cage from all of existence. And then he hears Gabriel and the burning subsides, replaced with cold anguish. His brother, the brother he thought he had killed, still alive. Alive and calling to them, if only they could burst open their prison and join him.

His gaze meets his brother's, on the same frequency for the first time since before the Fall.

* * *

Michael only senses it once Lucifer begins his cry and mad beating against the walls of their prison. The despair that had sunk into him long ago deepens as he stares at the supposedly impregnable wall that Lucifer bashes himself against futilely. There is nothing they can do. Even if they escape, half of them are dead and Father long disappeared. Gabriel's voice touches him, sparking some fire into his grace. And then Raphael - forever loyal and steadfast, killed at the hands of an unruly Seraph - answers back. Lucifer stops thrashing, apparently hearing their siblings just as clearly as Michael is. He stands tall, the first time in the millions of years it feels like they've been trapped and turns to his younger brother.

The two nod and Michael's own speckled grey wings brush against Lucifer's as they bombard the weakest point in their prison with fire and ice and a desperation unmatched by any other force.

* * *

The Cage gives, opening only wide enough in the cemetery to allow the two eldest archangels their freedom. Both are already in vessels despite Sam's rescue years before. A breeze passes over them as their younger siblings appear, hauling the pair to their feet. A soft, dark hand touches each of them, healing wounds that neither knew had continued to cause them pain.

Gabriel stares hard at Lucifer, watching until his brother bows his head. A sad smile quirks up the Messenger's lips as he puts a hand on his brother's shoulder - not quite an act of forgiveness, but an accepting of the unspoken apology.

Raphael's hand hasn't left Michael's since she healed him, her gaze inspecting him vessel and grace alike for any injuries she might have missed in the initial healing. Michael lets her, pulling his sister into an embrace that is all he can do to convey his gratitude and sorrow for all she had given for him.

They stand in a circle, wings bared.

They are ready to face their enemy, the reason their Father had created them.

They are ready to be family once more.

 


End file.
